Genetically Modified Yeast keeps me alive.

[Silverhair]

I am a diabetic. I have to inject insulin daily. The insuling that I use is Human Insulin, but it comes from a yeast that has been GMed by splicing some human DNA into it so that it produces Human Insulin. I would then be a hypocrite if I opposed other GM techniques that could be helpful to people.

I think the opposition to GM is simply knee jerk anti-science.

[Nlighten1]

1. That is a good thing

The problem with GM isn't the good things it can do though. It is the horrible stuff that you can do with GM that frightens me.

[Ediacara]

4. but that's just the problem....

The frankenfood fanatics think the 1% of bad things that MIGHT happen = the 99% of GREAT things that DO happen.

I am not in favor of the 1%, don't get me wrong, and I think that legislation should be enacted to counter things like propriatory genetics, and non-reproductive strains etc, as well as extensive testing before released to the markets.

But the thing that drives me up the wall is the complete lack of understanding of the concept of genetic engineering, which up until now has been completely the practice of selective breeding, which has introduced things like apples and oranges and corn and wheat into peoples diets. Genetic manipulation (which is not selective breeding) is not inherently bad, and people need to understand that.

[PVnRT]

7. Agreed

I think it boils down to ignorance of genetic engineering as well.

[rucky]

12. Soon We'll Have Apple-Dogs as pets

and eat them when we get tired of them!

[Ediacara]

18. hopefully by then

Humanity will have weeded out the people dumb enough to make such statements....

[PVnRT]

2. Actually, it's probably E. Coli

It's much easier to grow the protein that human insulin is based on in E.Coli cells rather than yeast (S.Cerevisae).

[Silverhair]

5. Maybe. But it's still GM. n/t

[Classical_Liberal]

3. Nuclear reactors can produce electricity

and they can melt down. Insulin existed as a treatement long before they genetically modified yeast. They can also genetically modify bacteria to kill you. I get into lots of fights with creationists so I am not kneejerk antiscience. I am kneejerk bad uses and consequences, and how do we prevent bad uses and consequences.

[PVnRT]

6. Insulin

Before recombinant DNA technology was perfected, you know how they made insulin? Chopped up pig and dog pancreas and harvested what they could. Much crueler, much more expensive. Is that what you'd prefer?

[Classical_Liberal]

10. I am not a vegetarian

so it doesn't bother me much more than meat eating. On the other hadn the idea that they could make bacteria no human is immune too, worries me alot.

[PVnRT]

13. You aren't injected with the bacteria

The cells are broken apart, the insulin recovered, and afterwards it is processed and purified and sold. And if you're worried about bacteria coming to kill you, you should worry a hell of a lot more about defense contractors and the fact that doctors are prescribing antibiotics right and left and people aren't using them properly before you were too much about pharmaceuticals.

[Ediacara]

19. Bacteria no human is imune to?

You mean like anthrax or batulinum? Better get a lawsuit for that damned mother nature....

[DrWeird]

23. Not only that...

pig insulin just isn't any good for you.

[Ediacara]

16. how do we prevent bad uses and consequences?

Law. Have laws against propriatory genetics requiring repurchase of infertile plants. Have laws against release of product without extensive testing. Have extreme penelties for researchers AND corporations that abuse genetic research, including huge sums of money and jail time.

[FDRrocks]

8. I'm not anti GM... I just want...

the fucktards to start labeling foods with GMO's in them. It's so simple.

[AP]

9. GM to keep you alive is fine. GM so that a few large companies can control

the market for food, and bring an end to subsistence farming, and can tie products and control farmers through intellectual property clauses in seed contracts sucks.

[Loonman]

14. Hold the phone

What if they make profit while keeping you alive at the same time?

[JohnyCanuck]

25. Hear, hear !!!!!

We, the undersigned scientists, call for the immediate suspension of all environmental releases of GM crops and products, both commercially and in open field trials, for at least 5 years; for patents on living processes, organisms, seeds, cell lines and genes to be revoked and banned; and for a comprehensive public enquiry into the future of agriculture and food security for all.

Patents on life-forms and living processes should be banned because they threaten food security, sanction biopiracy of indigenous knowledge and genetic resources, violate basic human rights and dignity, compromise healthcare, impede medical and scientific research and are against the welfare of animals.

GM crops offer no benefits to farmers or consumers. Instead, many problems have been identified, including yield drag, increased herbicide use, erratic performance, and poor economic returns to farmers. GM crops also intensify corporate monopoly on food, which is driving family farmers to destitution, and preventing the essential shift to sustainable agriculture that can guarantee food security and health around the world.

<snip>

Agroecological approaches hold great promise for sustainable agriculture in developing countries, in combining local farming knowledge and techniques adjusted to local conditions with contemporary western scientific knowledge(60). The yields have doubled and tripled and are still increasing. An estimated 12.5 million hectares worldwide are already successfully farmed in this way(61). It is environmentally sound and affordable for small farmers. It recovers farming land marginalized by conventional intensive agriculture. It offers the only practical way of restoring agricultural land degraded by conventional agronomic practices. Most of all, it empowers small family farmers to combat poverty and hunger.

Open Letter from World Scientists to All Governments Concerning Genetically Modified Organisms

[Cocoa]

11. the anti-GM folks don't want to stop your medicine

anyone who says they do is jerking your chain.

Off on a tangent, isn't it mind-boggling that we are able to do this? I didn't know they were doing it with yeast, I knew they did it with bacteria.

[Silverhair]

21. It's probably bacteria. I could be mistaken about yeast. n/t

[Cocoa]

27. you might be mistaken about the anti-GM movement

I've never heard any of them talking about insulin.

Do you have a link, or some other indication of what made you think the anti-GM people opposed engineered insulin?

[DrWeird]

15. Agreed.

It's 90% creationist Jeremy Rifkin type luddism.

Notice the article here on it on Halloween? Titled "franken foods" with a picture of a bunch of eyeballs on a sandwich or something. It was discussing Round-up ready crops or terminator genes or something innocous. It seemed really confused. If that's not scare mongering I don't know what is.

Not that I don't think there aren't valid concerns about the safety of GM. There are.

But most people I've spoken to who are against GM are really quite ignorant about the process and what the actual concerns are. They really on half truths and full lies and it really drives meup the wall.

[Shakespeare]

17. You counter knee-jerkism with an equally weak argument

I'm glad they're able to produce the insulin you (and so many others need) to control your diabetes.

HOWEVER.

The big, big, BIG difference that you're not factoring into your argument is that your insulin from genetically modified yeast is produced in a controlled environment.

What so many of us who have legitimate concerns about GM foods are worried about is what happens in the uncontrolled environment when anything GM is produced outdoors. You can't control nature, and there are serious problems with everything from cross-pollination with non-GM foods to how these GM plants affect the other plants, animals and insects that come into contact with them.

I don't think anybody is suggesting that all genetic engineering is bad--in fact, I don't think I've ever seen that argument at all on DU. We're simply worried about what kind of pandora's box companies like Monsanto have opened when GM plants are part of an uncontrollable environment.

[Loonman]

20. You see?

If some of the folks on my thread had used your point, it would have saved a whole lot of grief and aggravation.

[Ediacara]

28. and this argument is sound? LOL

Oh my goodness, that GM wheat, with the solid stem that's resistent to sawfly might pollenate with that hollow-stemmed wheat and the seeds the produce could grow into plants WITH HUMAN EYEBALLS!

LOL!!!

No, sorry, the plants produced will be, JUST LIKE ALL OFFSPRING, a mix of their parents genes, some having solid stems, some hollow, some more resistant to sawfly, some less etc.

There was a fellow by the name of Gregor Mendel who did all sorts of experiments of this kind about 200 years ago on pea plants. You should look him up one of these days.

[tom_paine]

31. A very good point, Mr.Shakespeare...

I completely agree. The process to create insulin and other compound by "bacterial production menthods" are not the same to creating genetically modified foods and releasing them into the wild.

There are all manner of unpleasant effects that could be unintentionally caused, and even breeding "sterile" plants does not insure 100% certainty that mutants won't be able to reproduce. In biology, it is extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible, to creat anything with 100% success. Usually, we in this field talk about log-orders of magnitude (ie. 99% vs 99.9% vs. 99.99% and so on).

And I am a molecular biologist, so I am not entirely ignorant of what I speak.

I am not totally against GM foods, and I completely support bacterial production methods such as those used to produce insulin in a controlled environemnt.

To me, the problem rest not so much with the science of molecular biology/genetics, but with the science of ecology which is younger as a science as molecular genetics and, with so much less money and research-hours being put into it (damned lib'rul hippie scientists!), is infinitely less well understood.

What Shakespeare is trying to say (I think), and what I wholeheartedly agree with, is the ECOLOGY of GM foods is not well-known. THAT is the problem more than the GM-aspects of it as theys tand alone.

For instance: There is already a burgeoning issue with genetic uniformity in corn and wheat crops, and the potentiality for unforeseen consequences doubles when not only do you have genetic unifromity, but when they are also not naturally occurring phenotypes.

Just my 2 cents

[RandomUser]

22. Agreed, Silverhair

I've always found your posts to be intelligent and insightful, and here's just another example of why. Of course, the fact that I agree with you helps :)

:yourock:

[Robin Hood]

24. Here is where the problems lie.

The fact that GM plants can not be controlled from crossbreeding with non GM plants is a major issue. We are at the beginning stages of figuring out the dangers and benefits of GM plants. Until we know for sure that GM plants are safe, the plants need to be strictly quarantined or we will be messing with our food supply.

Personally, I want food the way nature made it. And I think that it's wrong to put out these GM breeds into the main population, which may ultimately weaken ancient strains of plants and cause a catastrophe beyond imagination. This can not be taken lightly.

[Tracer]

26. Silverhair Ñ

perhaps in the not-too-distant future, you won't have to rely on either GM foods or insulin.

I read in this morning's Boston Globe that researchers have CURED juvenile diabetes in mice.

Can it be such a step to cure diabetes in humans?

Good luck!

[Silverhair]

29. There is a new anti-tooth decay bacteria.

i read about this a couple of years ago. I'm not going to try to find a link. Toot decay, as we all know, comes from an acid that a bacteria in the human mouth secrets. Some company has R-DNAed that same bacteria to not produce the same acid. It is also a little bit more aggressive than the "raw" bacteria, so it out competes the old bacteria in the mouth, thereby crowding it out.

A person with this stuff in their mouth will NEVER have tooth decay. Further, since it is a life form, it can be passed on by kissing.

What do you think of that?

[AnnabelLee]

30. Locking

Please confine the GMO flaming to this existing thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=708684

Thank you
AnnabelLee
DU Moderator